NMMI given hero’s welcome after title
The national champions got a well-deserved escort back into town Saturday. A day after beating Iowa Western in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I national championship game Friday in Little Rock, Ark., the New Mexico Military Institute football team was welcomed back to Roswell with an all-hands-on-deck first responders’ escort down the town’s main drag.
A fleet of police and fire department vehicles flanked the four buses and one cargo van carrying the Broncos back to campus. Video of the caravan appeared on social media Saturday night.
NMMI completed a 12-1 season by capturing the state’s first football national title at any level by dominating Friday’s game. Not bad for a team whose head coach wore the interim tag throughout the summer and into part of the season.
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What in the name of El Colegio de San Miguel is going on here?
As we approach the holiday break, 12 boys high school basketball teams remain winless. Of those, eight are at the small-school level in Class 1A and one in 5A (Clovis, 0-7). Among the others is St. Michael’s at 0-10.
It seems like a typo; no way can a program as rich in tradition as that can be winless through 10 games, but it’s painfully (literally) true. Injuries have ravaged the Horsemen. They’re struggling to generate consistent offense, which was evident in last weekend’s blowout loss to Santa Fe High.
The Demons (9-0), by the way, are one of four undefeated teams still standing in 5A, alongside everyone’s favorite for No. 1, Las Cruces (10-0), as well as Volcano Vista (9-0) and Farmington (6-0). There are only three other unbeaten teams in all of boys hoops,
each of them in 1A and 2A.
What’s it mean? The Horsemen will eventually win a few games, the Demons might lose a game or two and, come March, we’ll probably see both in the state playoffs. For now, though, marvel at the sight of Santa Fe’s oldest programs at opposite ends of the spectrum.
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There are two schools in the state in which their boys and girls basketball programs have yet to lose — Volcano Vista and Farmington. A third fell off the list Saturday when Class 2A Mesa Vista lost to Albuquerque Bosque School, 66-64, in the White bracket championship game of Pojoaque Valley’s Ben Luján Classic on Saturday.
With that said, the Trojans (6-1) and Lady Trojans (7-0) are the early surprises of the basketball season and both programs are doing it with youth. The boys have six players who are freshmen or eighth graders on its roster, while the girls team has no seniors, five sophomores and a pair of freshmen.
While the boys team fell short of bringing home a tournament championship, the Lady Trojans beat Crownpoint in the Ben Luján White bracket championship.
Both teams are off until the Northern Rio Grande Tournament from Jan. 6-8 and should be the top seeds in their respective brackets.
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A trio of Northern wrestlers came back from the Rio Hondo Scu±e wrestling meet in Roswell with individual titles to show for their efforts.
Capital’s Sevastian Madrid won the 113 pound weight class, while Kyle Coffeen from Española Valley won the 152 title. Santa Fe High’s Elijah Martinez took the 182 title. Madrid won his final with an 8-6 overtime win against Rio Rancho Cleveland’s Zerrick Harrington, while Coffeen pinned Belen’s Peter Duran in the second period of their final.
Meanwhile, Martinez handled the Storm’s Johua Perry in a 7-1 win.
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What will a cool, crisp Benjamin get you these days, you ask?
If you send it to Las Cruces, you’ll get a customized stock certificate and 100 “shares” in the New Mexico State University football program. New coach Jerry Kill and Aggies AD Mario Moccia launched the innovative program earlier this month as a way to generate booster revenue for the historically underfunded team.
In just one week, the Aggies sold 100,000 “shares” that will go directly toward the N.M. State Football Goal Line Club, which extends benefits to the team to fulfill needs outlined by Kill and his staff. All donations are tax deductible, according to the school.
Moccia has reset the goal for $200,000, which he hopes comes to fruition based on the overwhelming support the team has already received.